Another Iranian national was reported killed in Iraq in
January 2015. Mehdi Norouzi was part of the Basij militia, which often fills
manpower needs for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF).
This would be the sixth member of that force to die in Iraq since June.
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| (Trend) |
On January
11, 2015 the Iranian press reported that Mehdi Norouzi was killed in Iraq.
He died in a firefight with the Islamic State on January 10. The media claimed
he was defending the Askari shrine in Samarra, Salahaddin, but this is part of
the propaganda line being pushed by Tehran to justify its presence in Iraq, so
he could’ve been killed anywhere in the province. Trend and Shafaq
News said that he was a commander in the Basij, a militia
formed in 1979 to help protect the new revolutionary regime of Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini. It is under the command of
the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and was used to put down the Green Movement in
Iran in 2009, and has been deployed to fight in Syria to defend the Assad
government. The Quds Force often calls on the Basij for manpower when it has
large deployments oversees like in Syria and currently in Iraq.
This was the sixth Iranian to officially die in Iraq. On December
28 General Hamid Taqavi of the IRGC was killed by an IS sniper in Balad,
Salahaddin. Before that IRGC member Ali Reza Moshajari died in Karbala in June,
along with another unidentified operative that month. In July IRGC Colonel
Kamal Shirkhani died in a mortar attack in Samarra, along with Colonel Shojaat
Almdari Mourjani who was an IRGC-QF pilot. All of these deaths show that the
Iranians have deployed their men right at the frontlines where they are
advising the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and allied militias as well as calling
in air strikes They entered Iraq as part of a security agreement signed between
Premier Nouri al-Maliki and Tehran right after the fall of Mosul in June. The
Quds Force is leading this assistance mission, which is why all the Iranian
casualties have come from that organization.
Iran has emerged as the major power in Iraq since this
summer. It was the first country to fully commit to Iraq after the fall of
Mosul, and has played a decisive role since then. It has forged much of
Baghdad’s security strategy, has helped organize its militia allies, provided
advisers and air strikes, and sold Iraq billions of dollars of much needed
military equipment. This has officially cost Iran six lives, with more probably
unreported, but it looks like a worthwhile investment, as Tehran will have a
dominant role in Iraq’s institutions when everything is said and done.
SOURCES
Bruno, Greg, “Iran’s Revolutionary Guards,” Council on
Foreign Relations, 10/25/07
Naame Shaam, “Iran in Syria From an Ally of the Regime to an
Occupying Force,” September 2014
Niayesh, Umid, “IS kills Iran’s Basij member in Iraq,”
Trend, 1/12/15
Press TV, “Iranian volunteer combatant killed in Iraq,”
1/11/15
Shafaq News, “Iran announces the death of a military
commander in the war against ISIS in Iraq,” 1/12/15
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